At a breakfast event this morning, EA revealed that the company is working on a number of sports projects for Wii U. These titles obviously have not been announced.
The issue is that we don’t know which games will be coming to the platform, and it doesn’t sound like any of them will be ready for the Wii U’s launch. That’s disappointing given the fact that Madden was made available alongside Wii, and even the 3DS. Madden, while nothing like a Mario or Zelda, could have made the system’s debut more well-rounded.
For a number of years, the Wii was displayed vertically. In fact, all units of the console included a special stand so that the system could be propped up correctly.
The situation is different with Wii U. It’s always been shown at a horizontal position. You may be interested to learn that the console can’t actually stand up vertically without falling over.
As for why this is the case, Shigeru Miyamoto explained to Kotaku:
“”I guess we could make a stand. I think maybe it was because we didn’t want people to think it was a Wii.”
When prodded further, Miyamoto said:
“It kind of goes back to our idea of the Wii U itself which is: ‘What is the role of the physical hardware?’ And in this particular case we felt that the physical hardware is something that’s becoming something that is less and less important from an identity perspective for a game machine.
“So, for example, with even something like Kinect you can have your hardware put away and out of sight and you can wave at the TV and maybe the game will come on or something.
“Similarly with Wii U, when we [considered the question] ‘What is the face of Wii U going to be?’, for us the face of Wii U really isn’t the console box itself. It’s the controller; it’s the Wii U GamePad. So just like a set top box is non-descript and tucked away, our feeling was that the Wii U hardware was something that could be tucked away and out of sight.
“The Wii U GamePad is really the face of the system, whereas, with the Wii system, we had really designed it so that that system itself really stood out when you looked at it.”
In the end I suppose this isn’t too big of a deal, but it’s worth mentioning.
Namco Bandai shared a release date for Lost Heroes with Famitsu. The game is scheduled for release on September 9.
Previously announced as a 3DS exclusive, it will now be heading to the PSP, too. The 3DS version will offer Famicom’s SD Hero Soukessen as download content.
Shigeru Miyamoto does indeed have an original game in the works. The thing is, he’s been so preoccupied with different roles that it’s been taking awhile to create the design document.
Miyamoto told Joystiq:
“One thing I want to clear up, people like to ask me if I want to do a small project with a small team. I do like working with a small team, and I’m working with a number of small teams on a lot of different ideas, but the problem is because of all these different roles that I have to fulfill, it takes me a long time to write the design document.”
Miyamoto added that the design work has been taking longer than usual due to the nature of working with smaller teams, so “maybe this time next year I’ll have something ready to show you that perhaps will illustrate that idea.”
He’s currently busy with the project’s design documents, even working on them at E3 2012.
According to Miyamoto:
“I have some storyboards that I have to draw before I finish this trip. It’s fun. I use Flipnote Studio to draw my storyboards.”
01./00. [3DS] Dragon Quest Monsters: Terry no Wonderland 3D (Square Enix) – 513,183 / NEW
02./01. [PS3] Dragon’s Dogma (Capcom) – 82,985 / 385,025 (-73%)
03./02. [3DS] Mario Tennis Open (Nintendo) – 41,479 / 143,124 (-59%)
04./05. [WII] Mario Party 9 (Nintendo) – 19,627 / 400,390 (-6%)
05./00. [3DS] Guild01 (Level 5) – 14,790 / NEW
06./00. [PS3] Jissen Pachi-Slot Hisshouhou! Hokuto no Ken F – Legend of the End of the Century Savior (SEGA) – 13,758 / NEW
07./10. [3DS] Super Mario Land 3D (Nintendo) – 10,018 / 1,605,114 (+2%)
08./00. [PSP] Soukoku no Kusabi: Hiiro no Kakera 3 – Ashita e no Tobira (Scarlet Fragments 3 – Doors to Tomorrow) (Idea Factory) – 10,008 / NEW
09./07. [3DS] Fire Emblem: Awakening (Nintendo) – 9,654 / 400,999 (-34%)
10./14. [3DS] Mario Kart 7 (Nintendo) – 7,771 / 1,728,338 (+2%)
11./00. [PSP] Abunai: Koi no Sousa Shitsu (Danger! Love Investigation Room) (QuinRose) – 7,349 / NEW
12./13. [3DS] Monster Hunter 3 G (Capcom) – 7,001 / 1,465,659 (-11%)
13./03. [PSP] Uta no * Prince-Sama: Debut (Ah! My Prince’s Song: Debut) (Broccoli) – 5,445 / 66,821 (-91%)
14./23. [3DS] Mario & Sonic at the London 2012 Olympic Games (Nintendo) – 4,374 / 176,356 (-6%)
15./04. [360] Dragon’s Dogma (Capcom) – 4,372 / 33,397 (-85%)
16./22. [WII] Wii Sports Resort (w/ Wii Remote+) (Nintendo) – 4,201 / 953,286 (-11%)
17./00. [PSP] BlazBlue: Continuum Shift Extend (Arc System Works) – 3,982 / NEW
18./21. [3DS] Kid Icarus: Uprising (Nintendo) – 3,974 / 284,552 (-18%)
19./00. [PSP] Tsuyo Kiss 3 Gakki Portable (Revolution) – 3,376 / NEW
20./15. [PSP] My Sister Can’t Be This Cute Portable Can’t Possibly Continue (Namco Bandai) – 3,216 / 63,144 (-52%)
